January 19, 2005
More Theater Decisions
This is becoming the “Home Theatre Blog”! Ok, I had 2 sets of consultants out to look at the setup. Getting good advice and pricing on the components. A few things came up that I need to figure out.
1. 7.1 Channel Sound: No big deal here. I guess I am on board. I have 5.1 upstairs. Anybody really notice a difference?
2. Component Video Switcher: They claim it is best to get a receiver that takes video and audio and then sends one set of component video cables to your projector. This helps solve the remote nightmare because you can then get down to just your big receiver remote I suppose. Anybody done this? Does S-video look OK when “upleveled” to component video?
3. Cabinet/Rack Location. This seems to be the big deal with the big spenders (I am not). Where to display the rack of components? I am not going to spend a fortune here. I have been burnt before on overpriced stuff so I always just buy Sony. I feel like it is a good balance. Anyway, where do I rack this stuff in my room? You saw the blueprint. The screen is going on the top wall in the diagram to the left. I am now thinking that I might just use one of the cabinent that we are putting into the bar area (next to the stairs). The cool thing there is that I could run the cables out the back of the cabinet into the unfinished portion of the basement which is my switch room. Then I could go up and into the ceiling for the projector. This way the components are all nice and hidden. Who wants to see a DVD player anyway! The only trick might be the Xbox or something that uses IR or cabled controllers. The Nintendo would be fine because those are RF. But I guess I need to switch everything to RF or put in one of those IR “eyes” so I can point the remote at the screen but still control the components that are in the cabinet.
So many decisions. Help!
